Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise as Fed rate hike pacifies markets' inflation worries

LIVE Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise as Fed rate hike pacifies markets' inflation worries Grace O'Donnell · Editor, Special Projects Updated Thu, September 17, 2026 at 5:55 PM GMT+2 1 min read ^GSPC ^DJI CL=F ^IXIC US stocks rose in premarket trading on Thursday as oil prices edged lower and an expected Fed rate hike on Wednesday offered some relief that the central bank was working to contain inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) rose 0. 7%, while the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) climbed 1.

1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) jumped 1. 6%, rebounding from a post-Fed-hike slump on Wednesday.

Stocks recovered as investors assessed Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh's hawkish rhetoric, which analysts said helped restore the Fed's credibility on inflation. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points for the first time in three years and projected one more rate hike this year. The decision drew ire from President Trump , who called for lower interest rates and said he spoke with Warsh ahead of the FOMC meeting.

"You might as well vote with the board because it's not going to matter," Trump said he told Warsh. Oil prices, meanwhile, ticked lower as US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which has become a key alternative route for oil stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, would be restored soon. Brent crude ( BZ=F ), the global benchmark, changed hands at $104 per barrel.

In other news, the Bank of England voted to hold its benchmark bank lending rate steady at 3. 75% on Thursday. LIVE 12 updates Today at 3:55 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Jamie Dimon on AI oversight: 'It should be light touch' Jamie Dimon is not known for being a fan of regulation , Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith reports, but this week he voiced support for a "light touch" form of federal oversight for the artificial intelligence industry, arguing that differing state laws complicate AI commerce.

"If it's going to be anything, it should be federal. It should be light touch," Dimon, the longtime CEO of JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), said in a Wednesday interview. "The government will have its own opinion, as will every state.

… I do think that becomes an issue because it's almost impossible to deal with commerce when you have different state laws for everything. " Dimon also weighed in on the problem of high inflation after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday by 25 basis points. "I'm sympathetic to those who pay a higher price, but it's not clear to me it's over yet.

It's not clear to me we've slayed inflation," Dimon told Yahoo Finance in an interview. Read more. Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, speaks at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

, at an event with President Donald Trump during the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) · AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson Today at 3:40 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Micron stock pops after Intel CEO says memory bottleneck 'will be worse' in 2027 Micron ( MU ) shares rose by more than 5% on Thursday after Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said at an industry event that memory chip demand isn't slowing down and that prices would continue to rise. "I think a lot of people didn't realize — at the beginning of last year, I said memory was going to be the big bottleneck, and it turned out to be the case," Tan said.

"Next year it's going to be even worse. Capacity is very constrained, and a lot of business has slowed down because they cannot get enough memory. Memory prices have also gone up a lot — five, six, seven times.

" Other semiconductor stocks, including Nvidia ( NVDA ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), and SK Hynix ( SKHY ), also rose as Tan's remarks highlighted how higher memory chip costs could continue to pad chipmakers' profits. However, Barclays strategist Venu Krishna warned on Thursday that higher memory chip costs could pose a key earnings risk for chip buyers in 2027, as Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi reported. "Recent commentary from some of the largest memory buyers suggests that higher cost assumptions are starting to spill over into next year," Krishna said.

"Apple attributed all of its recent gross margin compression to higher memory costs, which they expect to persist over the near term. … Samsung, in its somewhat unusual position as both memory manufacturer and customer, noted that pre-booked demand implies a wider memory supply-demand gap in 2027 than in 2026, reinforcing expectations for sustained pricing strength. " Today at 2:43 PM UTC Jake Conley Generac stock pops on news of deal with Amazon Generac ( GNRC ) shares surged on Thursday, climbing by more than 18% on news that the company has signed a deal to provide Amazon ( AMZN ) with backup generators for the hyperscaler's data centers.

Generac, long known as a supplier of home generators, will supply Amazon with up to $8 billion worth of backup generators as the Big Tech stalwart looks to secure power for its growing network of data centers. Initial deliveries are expected to reach $2. 4 billion in 2027 and 2028, per Bloomberg, with ramp-ups from there.

The deal is also indicative of a broader trend, as AI infrastructure providers look to secure power, which has become one of the leading bottlenecks to the technological boom. In April, Oracle ( ORCL ) signed an agreement to purchase up to 2. 8 gigawatts of power from the fuel cell provider Bloom Energy ( BE ).

Today at 2:23 PM UTC Claire Boston Home contract signings drop 4. 7% from last year amid higher mortgage rates Home contract signings improved slightly from July to August but slumped from a year ago, a sign of buyers' sensitivity to higher mortgage rates. Pending home sales, a measure of homes going under contract, climbed 0.

3% in August from a month earlier but are down 4. 7% from last year, according to National Association of Realtors data. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a more modest 3.

9% year-over-year drop. "Buyers steadily entered into contracts in August even though mortgage rates increased," Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist, said in a statement. "However, the housing market is still sluggish, with contract signings below last year.

This is due to higher mortgage rates offsetting the increased buying power created by job gains and income growth outpacing home price growth. " Read more. Today at 2:13 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Lucid stock pops on European robotaxi push with Bolt Lucid ( LCID ) stock popped 11% on Thursday after the electric vehicle maker signed a major partnership with Bolt, a European ride-hailing platform, to deploy at least 25,000 autonomous vehicles.

The deal will help Lucid push into the robotaxi space in Europe. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports: Under the deal, Bolt will create a robotaxi network using Lucid's upcoming midsize platform, with the vehicles powered by Nvidia's Hyperion autonomous-vehicle architecture and engineered for SAE Level 4 driving, the industry standard for cars that can operate without a human behind the wheel in defined conditions, similar to Alphabet's ( GOOGL ) Waymo vehicles. "Shared autonomous mobility offers the perfect opportunity to extend our unique technology beyond consumer vehicles," Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli said in a statement.

"Bolt's reach and operating expertise make it an ideal partner to scale autonomous mobility across Europe. " Read more. Today at 1:44 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell Stocks gain at the open as oil falls Stocks rallied at the open, with the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) and Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) climbing over 1% and the Dow ( ^DJI ) rising 0.

7%. Here's a look at the sector action in the first few minutes of trading: A downward move in oil prices helped support stocks in the early going. Brent crude ( BZ=F ) fell to just under $103 per barrel, while WTI crude ( CL=F ) traded near the $100 level.

Diesel prices hit a record high in the US , however. The 10-year Treasury yield ( ^TNX ) fell 5 basis points to 4. 94% as investors assessed the Fed's first rate hike in three years and Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh's hawkish tone on inflation.

Today at 1:06 PM UTC Ines Ferré 'Oil market is a hot mess,' says analyst as supply shock keeps prices near $100 Oil prices remain close to $100 per barrel ( BZ=F ), with no indication of a resolution in the Middle East. That has raised speculation that the Trump administration may be tempted to impose an export fuel ban ahead of the mid-term elections to force fuel prices lower. "I think the odds of a diesel export ban announcement before midterms is high," wrote Liz Thomas, chief market strategist at SoFi, on X this week , noting diesel prices have been accelerating higher.

The average price of gasoline on Thursday sat at $4. 43 per gallon. The national average price of diesel is at a record high of $6.

39 per gallon, according to AAA. In California, prices have jumped by more than $1 per gallon in a month, to above $8. 34 per gallon.

GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan noted on X that "diesel could hit $6. 60/gal in a few days, surpassing the inflation-adjusted peak seen in 2022. " Read more.

Today at 12:19 PM UTC Claire Boston Why your cell phone bill is getting so expensive — and how that helped persuade the Fed to raise rates Millions of Americans recently received unwelcome news about their cell phone bills. In late July, T-Mobile said it was retiring over 1,000 older plans, shifting customers to newer offerings at an added cost of as much as $6 per line per month. And starting Aug.

5, AT&T hiked rates on some of its older plans by $10 to $20 and increased a monthly per-line fee by $1. The changes contributed to a steep 5. 9% jump in Americans' wireless bills from July to August alone, according to Consumer Price Index data.

It was the largest single-month jump since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the category nearly two decades ago. In a twist, last month's rising phone bills may have helped convince the Federal Reserve to implement its first interest rate hike in three years . The steep price jump in that category likely contributed about 10 basis points of August's 0.

3% month-over-month rise in core consumer prices, according to Wall Street analysts . The hotter-than-expected jump in this category, which strips out the price changes of the particularly volatile food and energy sector, helped cement expectations for the Fed's 25 basis-point hike to benchmark rates on Wednesday. Read more.

Today at 11:13 AM UTC Jake Conley Bank of England holds rates steady, though Gov. Bailey cites risk of energy-driven inflation The Bank of England voted to hold its benchmark bank lending rate unchanged at 3. 75% , holding steady for now as Governor Andrew Bailey warned that inflationary pressures may push the central bank to hike in coming months.

Three members of the Monetary Policy Committee dissented, splitting the vote along identical lines to the Bank of England's last meeting as the dissenters called for again for a 25-basis point hike. European equities ticked up after the decision, pushing the STOXX 600 ( ^STOXX ) index to a gain of roughly 0. 4%.

Bailey, voting with the majority to hold rates, acknowledged in a prepared statement that while the UK has so far remained somewhat insulated from global inflationary pressures, that picture could quickly change. "So far, higher global energy costs have had a limited effect on price and wage setting in the UK," Bailey wrote. "But the longer this volatility persists, the bigger the impact it will have on inflation, and the more likely it is we will need to raise Bank Rate to ensure that inflation falls back to our 2% target.

" "Whatever happens, we'll make sure that inflation gets back to the target in the medium term," Bailey added, echoing comments made by his contemporary across the Atlantic Ocean, Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh, on Wednesday. Today at 10:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Fed builds credibility, but hawkish turn leaves investors edgy Reuters reports: Investors are gaining more confidence in the Federal Reserve's inflation-fighting backbone, but uncertainty about how far it will raise interest rates to keep prices in check is likely to cause volatility for stocks and bonds in the weeks ahead. The U.

S. central bank on Wednesday raised ‌rates for the first time since 2023, a widely expected move as it seeks to address persistently above-target inflation, despite repeated public calls by President Donald Trump for rate cuts. But markets now ‌confront a very different investment backdrop, including a lack of clarity about how tight the Fed will now seek to make monetary policy.

In the face of higher rates, some investors said it could make rate-sensitive assets, such as small-cap stocks, less ​attractive. The meeting "does make them look independent... it adds trust to the market," said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments.

Yet the Fed "may have come off a little too hawkish in this meeting and we're just going to have to see how the economy can react in the next couple of months," he said. Read more. Today at 9:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Good morning.

Here's what's happening today. Economic data: Philadelphia Fed business outlook, September (28. 6 expected, 47.

4 previously); Initial jobless claims, week ended Sept. 12 (206,000 previously); Continuing claims, week ended Sept. 5 (1.

774 million previously); Housing starts, month-on-month, August (1. 315 million expected, 1. 239 million previously); Building permits, month-on-month, August preliminary reading (-0.

9% expected, +4. 3% previously) Earnings calendar: No notable earnings. Catch up on some top stories you might have missed overnight: Trump slams the Fed rate hike, says he told Warsh, 'you might as well vote with the board' Snap launches $2,195 Specs smart glasses Trump bans Canadian goods from US government purchases Fed's hawkish hike to pressure Asian currencies, strategists say US official says upcoming spectrum auctions could generate $100B+ When the Fed hikes rates, here's how it affects retirees and their money Today at 8:00 AM UTC Grace O'Donnell Oil extends slump as Saudi Arabia moves to restore key pipeline Bloomberg reports: Oil extended the biggest drop in more than six weeks on signs of easing Middle East supply disruptions, with a key pipeline being restored.

West Texas Intermediate fell toward $102 a barrel, after losing 3. 2% on Wednesday, the most since Aug. 4, while Brent closed below $106.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to return about half the capacity of its damaged East-West pipeline within days, and full operations in about six weeks, a person familiar said. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox Business that 18 million barrels of crude and products went through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. The seven-day average of flows through the waterway — which links the Persian Gulf to global markets — was 11 million barrels a day, he said.

Read more.